Do you remember that? Taking things personally is a childish act and it is during our childhood days where we begin to learn how not to take things personally and how to react constructively. But I feel that no one is 100% teflon.

Thanks for this post. An organization I used to work for would tell the employees that when someone appears to reject your offers, just say thank you and do like they do in a doctor’s office. Open the door and say “Next.” This is a great mental exercise.

Hey Christine, This reminded me of band concerts in high school. I played the clarinet in a very tiny band so I had many solos. I was always worried about messing up and ruining the whole concert for everyone (I’m a bit of a drama queen). Well, one spring, right before a concert, I was looking around at all the flowers that had just bloomed or were about to. And I thought, if a flower was too afraid to blossom because of what the other flowers may think of it, then there would be many flowers that we couldn’t enjoy. So now anytime I pick up my clarinet or guitar, I try not to worry about what others think so I can feel free to blossom and if my audience hates, so what? But if they love it, it’s worth it.

Great article, Christine! Just goes to show how we create our own reality – we can choose the story to be the most uplifting, positive one we can imagine. Or we can create ourselves as the victim, the misunderstood, the neglected.

In the end, whatever story we create reflects how we perceive ourselves. If our story is of rejection (by others), most likely there is a piece of us that we ourselves are rejecting. If our story is one of celebration, we are celebrating ourselves. Either way – we get to choose!

So please do not take this personally. this is wonderful information. however, I am looking for something even more practical which i just discovered I requested in an archive dated back in 2006…fat chance you may be reading that? i am very new to blogs, fumbling my way through many befriending thoughts that you share…Law-of- attraction-ly just the right thing I needed to read. so, I am humbling myself to ask again…is it at all possible to get chords to your songs? It is the only way I seem to be able to play my guitar and sing. Tabs and your lovey backstage dvd go right over my head. real simple is fune by me. thanks, Katherine

Hello All – I’ve gotten behind on comments because I had two big presentations this past week – and I want to respond to everyone. But I think that would take up a huge amount of space here. So, just know that I’ve read all the comments and I’ll respond to those folks with direct questions now…

Elizabeth – i love that story about the flowers. eckhart tolle said in one talk that a rose doesn’t wake up and criticize itself for not being like a daisy. nor does it say, “oh god, another day.” it just unfolds. i always think of that.

Hello Katherine – thanks for the note. unfortunately, I don’t have tablature or chords written down for my songs. i did that backstage DVD for those people who asked. i apologize if it’s too complicated! if there’s a particular song you want to know about, you can email me and i’ll try to give you the basics!

After being stabilized on the second day, he was transferred to the medical ward. Diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain subsided, but weakness and myalgias persisted. On hospital day 3, laboratory studies showed serum chloride 111 mEq/l, sodium 144 mEq/l, potassium 4.2 mEq/l and thrombocytopenia (platelet count of 77 000/mm
3
). On day 7, his platelet count returned to the normal range. Consecutive blood and urine cadmium concentrations were measured. Blood cadmium concentrations on days 2, 3, 4 and 7 post-exposure were 15.1, 7.4, 3.3 and 0.2 ng/ml, respectively, and urine cadmium concentrations 8.4, 5.6, 0.4 and 0.2 ng/ml.

Cadmium is a severe pulmonary and gastrointestinal irritant, which can be fatal if inhaled or ingested. Acute cadmium poisoning causes gastrointestinal tract erosion, pulmonary, hepatic or renal injury and coma, depending on the route of poisoning [
7
,
8
]. After acute ingestion, symptoms usually appear in 15–30 min. These include: abdominal pain, burning sensation, nausea, vomiting, salivation, muscle cramps, vertigo, shock, loss of consciousness and convulsions. Our case had vomiting, diarrhoea, anorexia and drowsiness after ingesting cadmium-containing chemicals. Acute ingestion of as little as 10 mg of inorganic cadmium has caused severe symptoms. Ingestion of >100 mg of its soluble salts can be lethal [
7
]. Our patient was estimated to have taken ∼1 g of inorganic cadmium, which is a lethal dose. Given the clinical course and the elevated blood and urine cadmium levels, it is all but certain that this patient's symptoms were related to acute cadmium poisoning.

Our case is unique due to the combination of cadmium and barium. We are unsure how much cadmium and barium our patient took, but a blood level of 24.9 mEq/l is a marked elevation, and is consistent with excessive cadmium salt ingestion. Blood cadmium levels are a reflection of acute cadmium exposure; urine levels appear to provide a better measure of chronic exposure [
9
]. Serum cadmium levels will help confirm the diagnosis, but do not correlate with the severity of intoxication. Many of our patient's symptoms could also be ascribed to barium poisoning (gastro-enteritis and paralysis). Physicians are familiar with barium in its inert and insoluble form as a contrast medium, barium sulfate. While barium sulfate is not absorbed systemically, other water-soluble barium salts (carbonate, chloride, sulfide and nitrate) can be absorbed and cause barium poisoning [
10
]. Barium stearate, the presumed culprit in our case, is a water-soluble barium salt and can cause acute poisoning. The serum barium concentration of 34.1 μg/day could have contributed to our patient's clinical manifestation; however, serum barium assays are not routinely available in hospital laboratories, and do not contribute to the management of this poisoning.